Exhibition Review

Africa Explores: 20th Century AfricanArt, at the Center for African Art, NewYork, NY, through January 5, 1992; Dal-las Museum of Art (February 9-April 5,1992); St. Louis Art Museum (May 15-July 5, 1992); Mint Museum of Art,Charlotte, NC (August 8-October 11,1992); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pitts-burgh, PA (November 7-January 10,1993); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Wash-ington, DC (February 6-April 4, 1993).A catalogue of the exhibition, publishedby the Center for African Art andPrestel-Verlag, is available for $39 (soft-cover) and $70 (hardcover).

Reviewed by Maude S. Wahlman

My first impression of the exhibitwas one of disappointment.

Maybe I had too many expectations, hav-ing curated an earlier traveling exhibit ofcontemporary African art in 1974.Maybe I was the wrong person to reviewthis show, as I was too close to the sub-ject. To me, this was an exhibition oftraditional African arts, what I would call"folk" art, and some "contemporary" Af-rican arts. My first question was whatabout everything in between traditionaland popular arts? Where were the transi-tional artists, those bridging the gapbetween traditional arts made for kingsand priests and the popular arts of the cit-ies? I had expected an update ofscholarship on contemporary African art,knowing that Jean Kennedy, Frieda High-Tesfagoris and Marilyn Houlberg hadcontinued to do research on this subjectlong after I had gone on to explore conti-nuities with African-American folk arts.

So I decided to read the catalog withthe same title to find explanations for theexhibit. The catalog is a marvelous, per-plexing, frustrating, challenging mixtureof viewpoints, which does provide in-sights on the goals of this recent exhibit.I advise everyone to read the catalog

Museum Anthropology, Vol. 15, no. 4

first. I wish I had read it before viewingthe show; it was available when I arrivedat the Center for African Art. It won'tprepare you for all of the perplexingthings in the show, but it does explainmany aspects. Susan Vogel's introductoryremarks and chapters are most illuminat-ing, for this show has its history in aseries of choices. For example, the ex-hibit explores the art of French-speakingAfrican countries because other exhibitsand literature on "contemporary" Africanart have concentrated on English-speak-ing countries (I plead guilty). It attemptsto avoid exhibiting artists already well-known, yet includes three artists chosenfor the 1989 Paris exhibition, Magiciensde la Terre. It leaves out much art madeby women, possibly because there is aWestern emphasis on painting and sculp-ture, rather than an African emphasis onall visual arts such as architecture, bas-ketry, body-painting, ceramics (onewoman potter, Magdalene Odondo, is in-cluded, as well as the sculptor, SokariDouglas Camp), costumes, textiles.

However, this is not an exhibit of"contemporary" African art; it is not anupdate of research on that topic, which iswhat I was expecting. This exhibit and itscatalog have a much broader mission—tointroduce a whole range of 20th-centuryAfrican art. Thus Vogel presents fivenew categories for communicating thisoverwhelming range of creativity: "Tradi-tional Art" (Dogon masks, Guro dancemasks, al-Barak dance headdresses,Fante cloth banners, simplified and plas-tic Ibeji dolls, Makonde masks—village-based, made for use by village people,for some event); "New Functional Art"(Ode-lay costumes, Kane Kwei's coffins,Sunday Jack Akpan's cement sculpture—commissioned, self-taught; what I wouldcall folk art, although my definition ofthat term differs greatly from Vogel's );"Urban Art" (sign paintings, photogra-phy, glass paintings—popular, extro-verted; also folk art by my definition);

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"International Art" (painting and sculp-ture by academically trained, or patron-influenced artists); and "Extinct Art" (inmuseums, often reproduced, symbolic).

These categories hold up very well asexplained by Vogel in her excellent, sen-sitive essays which delineate these cate-gories, and do so from art historical,anthropological, African and Westernpoints of view. The guest essays whichaccompany each category are in generalsuccessful attempts to further illuminateher main points. Van Beek's essay on Do-gon mask festivals is especially reward-ing. The catalog answers many questions:Why content is of prime importance forAfrican artist, critics, and audiences,page 16; why there is an increasing inter-est in naturalistic art, page 25; why eth-nicity is avoided now, page 26; whyAfrican artists were anonymous until re-cently, see page 50. However, it alsoraises far more.

To be commended is the inclusion ofphotography as an art form, developed ina unique way by African photographers,often without what Westerners wouldconsider adequate facilities. Vogel pointsout how Africans have incorporated manyaesthetic principles seen in earlier artforms (doubling images, filling spaceswith rhythmic repetitions, etc.) into theirphotographs. African photography isuniquely African. These artists have mas-tered the medium of photography so wellthat they have transformed it and made ittheir own, just as African-American quil-ters have Africanized quiltmaking to cre-ate their own recognizable forms.

What remains perplexing about boththe exhibit and the book are the choicesof what to include and what not to in-clude, in terms of artifacts and photos.As far as the catalogue goes, one is leftwith a lot of questions, such as: why isthere a photo of 17th-century Benin arton the catalog cover? Or why are thereplastic Ibeji dolls on the cover? In theexhibit the plastic dolls are paired with

traditional wooden Ibeji dolls to show anevolution of thought about how artifactsfunction. An even better example is theHoulberg photograph of a mother with ababy tied on her back and a plastic dollin the front of her dress (page 46). IfFante appliqu6d flags were included, whynot Fon applique? Why not Ibibio ap-plique' documented by Jill Salmonsand Keith Nicklin? Why not wovenor printed textiles?

Why is there so much traditionalAfrican art? Why five Bamana chiwarn in color when the comparisonon page 203, between a traditionalchi warn and a 1974 tapestry bySamba Balde works best? Why arethere three Benin plaques, threelang reliquary guardian figures,three Kota reliquary figures, threeKongo power figures illustrated?These are especially well-knownpieces which could have been repre-sented by one example or by photoscomparing the pieces to modernequivalents (one 19th-century Kongonldsi figure could have been placednear the 1988 painting Ta Tele byTrigo Piula). I would gladly havetraded the twenty or so large colorphotos for better, larger photos of20th-century art by unknown artists.

This exhibit needs editing. Thepoints can be made with fewer exam-ples. One does not need to see sixMakonde masks, six Baga pieces,five chi wara headdresses, seven inkand enamel paintings of glass fromSenegal, six Dogon masks, five cof-fins, or seven paintings by CheriSamba. There are so many more ex-amples mentioned in the catalogwhich one longs to see. Three exam-ples for any artist are sufficient. As itstands, the additional space at the TheNew Museum for Contemporary Art isredundant. Perhaps it draws a differentaudience. [This portion of the exhibitionis currently on view at the University ArtMuseum in Berkeley, CA until December29, 1991, after which it will travel toother venues with the rest of the exhibi-tion].

The category of "Extinct" art is mis-

leading, partly because most examples

are 19th century or earlier, and not 20thcentury, as the title of the exhibit leadsone to believe. Furthermore, if this cate-gory needs to be included, and I am notconvinced that it does, then it could beused to present a selective sampling ofextinct arts from all of sub-Saharan Af-rica. And, examples could be chosen

Ode-Lay Headdress, late 1970s. Sierra Leone.CoUeaion of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Rosenberg.

The New Museum af Contemporary Art

(photo: Jerry L. Thompson).

which relate in some way to the late20th-century examples featured. Few ob-jects exhibited in this category show anyrelevance to the main topic. Yet, those ofus who teach continuities between Ex-tinct, Traditional, Folk, and InternationalAfrican arts, are well aware of many ex-cellent examples of continuities. Actually,one could make a case for a continuum of20th-century African arts, starting withTraditional, through New Functional, toUrban, and ending with International atthe other end of the rainbow.

In the catalog, many important fieldphotographs are reproduced in too smalla format to be helpful, and too manyphotos and works of art whi h one needsto see in color, for teaching and research,are reproduced in black and white. Well-known traditional African arts are shownin full color pages (Are they trying to

please potential donors?) (Is this asign of what's really important to theCenter?) Some photos are too dark.

On page 23 the photo caption fora 1979 Ode-lay costume by Anjisays: "the pearl face-screen derivesfrom the bead veils of Yoruba Egun-gun masks." I suspect the compari-son should be to the beaded veils onYoruba royal beaded crowns

Marilyn Houlberg's photographsof contemporary cultural objects arereproduced often in the book and Iwas hoping for her comments on thesubject. One alv> hopes that by nowAfrican artists are writing their ownhistories of 20th-century Africanarts. One wishes, at least, for morebiographical and cultural informationon the more than 27 artists featuredOne often needs to use the book sindex to find examples of art by art-ists referred to in the text.

In the final analysis, I loved theexhibition once I read the catalogwhich is now on reserve in the uni-versity library as required readingfor my students. It breaks newground, challenges old assumptionsas to what is contemporary Africanart, and introduces many to new art-ists with new visions. It affirms mybelief that Africans are ever chang-ing, evolving, and improvising, hereor in Africa.

Now that the Center for African Art isat last committed to exploring the ques-tions raised by all 20th-century Africanarts, why not also explore the next leapof vision—African arts of the diaspora?If Susan Vogel thinks 20th-century Afri-can art is full of energy and vitality, waittill she sees what has happened and ishappening in Black American cultures tomany of these same aesthetic traditionsand themes! LJ

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